Apr. 9, 2013
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by Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY

by Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY

Superstars Beyoncé and Jay-Z were mobbed by fans last week when they visited Havana and celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary.

But two Republican members of Congress have asked the U.S. Treasury Department for information on what type of license the two had for the high-profile trip.

In a letter dated on Friday, reports Reuters, U.S. Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, asked Adam Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, for "information regarding the type of license that Beyoncé and Jay-Z received, for what purpose, and who approved such travel."

UPDATE 4/9: Reuters reports that a source familiar with the couple's itinerary says the trip was fully licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department under the "people-to-people" cultural exchange program.

Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart represent districts in south Florida with a high Cuban-American population.

"Despite the clear prohibition against tourism in Cuba, numerous press reports described the couple's trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda," the letter said. "We represent a community of many who have been deeply and personally harmed by the Castro regime's atrocities, including former political prisoners and the families of murdered innocents."

The long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba prevents most Americans from traveling to the island without a special license.

Sen. Marco Rubio also had strong words about the trip and issued a statement Monday accusing the Obama administration of not properly enforcing the law that bans tourism:

"U.S. law clearly bans tourism to Cuba by American citizens because it provides money to a cruel, repressive and murderous regime. Since their inception, the Obama Administration's 'people to people' cultural exchange programs have been abused by tourists who have no interest in the Cuban people's freedom and either don't realize or don't care that they're essentially funding the regime's systematic trampling of people's human rights," said Rubio.

He went on to say that if the couple's trip was fully licensed, the Obama administration "should explain exactly how trips like these comply with U.S. law and regulations governing travel to Cuba and it should disclose how many more of these trips they have licensed."

Beyoncé and Jay-Z declined to speak to reporters, but state-run website CubaSi called it a tourist trip, reports AP. And despite the license requirements, tens of thousands of Americans travel to Cuba each year on academic, religious, journalistic or cultural exchange licenses. In the past, artists who were challenged by the government have said they visited for cultural purposes.

If the two didn't have the proper license, they could face having to pay a fine.